Rosamund Pike relived a mortifying experience recently when she claimed that she was asked to strip during an audition for the 2002 James Bond movie Die Another Day in an Amazon’s Audible Sessions interview, reports Hollywood Life .
Pike, who was 21 back then, was attending her first major Hollywood audition when things went a little downhill. Only having a few small credits to her name, she hoped this would be her big break, but she was left more than a little uncomfortable when unusual demands were made from here.
“I remember them saying I was to drop my dress and appear in my underwear,” she described the experience.
“On the day, I don’t know how I got the resolve and strength of mind, but I just thought ‘actually sod that, if they’re gonna see me in my underwear, they better give me the job.’”
Left very confused, Pike didn’t know what to do but decided not to flash her underwear because the costume designer had already made her change. Rosamund turned up for the interview dressed in her grandma’s silk gown, but she was told that wouldn’t work as an evening dress. Instead, the costume designer gave her a dress which was basically “three pieces of string.”
“I realized I was in a completely different world and way out of my depth,” Pike recalled, fearing that if she didn’t put on the “three pieces of string,” she would be rejected straightaway.
“So, I put on this shimmering sheath, or whatever the order of the day was, but I didn’t drop it.”
Rosamund Pike Declined To Strip For ‘Die Another Day’ Audition, But Got The Part https://t.co/An2hGpgArk pic.twitter.com/MrrY5d48Pq
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) August 18, 2018
But even so, Pike never acceded to the stripping request. It wasn’t as if she was shy about removing her dress, but it was her reputation that she was really concerned about. Pike said that if her “stripped” tape started doing the rounds in LA, her career would’ve crashed even before taking off.
“So, I thought, ‘There’s no way I’m going to take off a dress in the audition for this tape to be sent around Los Angeles and to be judged on that,’” Pike said in the interview.
Nevertheless, that didn’t stop the casting directors from choosing Rosamund Pike anyway, and she starred in Die Another Day as Pierce Brosnan’s love interest Miranda Frost.
Unlike the audition which left her uncomfortable, however, Pike claimed that the shooting of the movie was a breeze as the crew really warmed up to her, especially because of the presence of on-set female producer Barbara Broccoli.
“I look back over my experience on the Bond film and think, my goodness Barbara Broccoli was way ahead of all this #MeToo movement,” Pike said.
